Fave Raves!

If you’re a music geek like me, you should check out the Mark Prindle website (http://www.markprindle.com/). I don’t always agree with the guy, but his writing is pretty damn funny. Oh, and he’s not for the faint of heart – he can get a bit “ribald” at times. What’s even funnier are some of the comments readers will leave in response to his reviews. For instance, for daring to trash a Misfits album (the truly abysmal reunion effort American Psycho) there is an avalanche of comments – half of them agree, half of them disagree, and the rest are arguing with previous comments that have been made. I also liked the angry comment from a reader who was pissed that he gave a Monkees album a better review than a Pearl Jam album – he asks “Do you REALLY think that the Monkees are a better band than Pearl Jam?” A few comments later someone responds “OF COURSE the Monkees are better than Pearl Jam. Christ, what isn't???” Agreed! The site also has some great interviews. Check out the one with Billy Zoom of X in which Prindle gets ripped on vodka during the course of the interview and keeps losing track of the conversation. Be forewarned, you can easily lose track of time and have a couple of hours disappear once you dig in. Proceed with caution.

Recently, he asked his readers to submit lists of their all time favorite albums. I gave it a go, and I thought I’d share my list here. I only had a few rules for myself – only one album per artist (the choice between Rubber Soul and Revolver was tough, and I was a bit torn with a few other artists as well), and no compilations (no “best of” comps, and no various artist comps – which ruled out the Nuggets box). (And yes, I know the Big Star listing is a “twofer” CD and is therefore cheating. I’ve never really made an effort to differentiate between the two – to me it has always been one long album.). I just listed these as they popped into my head (I think I could easily have done twice this many), so I will probably look at this again in a few days and see some glaring omissions – so be it. Also, I’ve noticed that the newest albums on here are a good 4 years old – I guess it takes awhile for an album to become a “favorite” of mine. I make no claim that these are the “greatest” albums ever released. These are just the albums that I can always throw on and enjoy – the ones that have become old friends.

By the way, I have listed 100 albums below. The poll asked that each reader submit a list of 73 favorites, and I stuck to that number – can you guess which ones didn’t make the cut?

20/20- 20/20
Adam & the Ants – Kings of the Wild Frontier
Adverts – Crossing the Red Sea With The Adverts
Alice Cooper – Love It to Death
Beach Boys – Pet Sounds
Beatles – Rubber Soul
Bee Gees – Bee Gees 1st
Big Star - #1 Record/Radio City
Blondie – Plastic Letters
Boomtown Rats – Tonic for the Troops
Brendan Benson - Lapalco
Brian Eno – Here Come the Warm Jets
Buzzcocks – A Different Kind of Tension
Captain Beefheart & the Magic Band – Doc at the Radar Station
Cheap Trick – Cheap Trick (1977)
Clash – The Clash (UK Version)
Curtis Mayfield – Superfly
Damned – Machine Gun Etiquette
David Bowie – Heroes
Dead Kennedys – Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables
Devo – Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo!
Dickies – Idjit Savant
Dictators – Go Girl Crazy
Echo & the Bunnymen – Crocodiles
Elvis Costello & the Attractions – Get Happy!
Faces – A Nod is as Good as a Wink…
Fastbacks – Answer the Phone, Dummy
Feelies – Crazy Rhythms
Flamin’ Groovies – Flamingo
Fleshtones – Hexbreaker!
Flipper – Generic Flipper
Flop – & the Fall of the Mopsqueezer
Funkadelic – Maggot Brain
Gang of Four – Entertainment!
Guided By Voices – Alien Lanes
Jam – In the City
Jim Carroll Band – Catholic Boy
Johnny Cash – At Folsom Prison
Joy Division – Unknown Pleasures
King Crimson – Discipline
Kinks – Something Else
Lazy Cowgirls – Ragged Soul
Left Banke – Walk Away Renee/Pretty Ballerina
Love – Forever Changes
MC5 – Back in the USA
Misfits – Static Age
Modern Lovers – Modern Lovers
Monkees – Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn & Jones Ltd.
Monks – Black Monk Time
Nazz – Nazz
New Bomb Turks – Scared Straight
New York Dolls – New York Dolls
Nick Lowe – Pure Pop for Now People
Nirvana – In Utero
Otis Redding – Dictionary of Soul
Patti Smith – Horses
Pink Floyd – Piper at the Gates of Dawn
PJ Harvey – Dry
Pretenders – Pretenders
Radio Birdman – Radios Appear
Ramones – Ramones
Real Kids – Real Kids
Redd Kross – Neurotica
Replacements – Pleased to Meet Me
Rolling Stones – Exile on Main Street
Runaways – Runaways
Saints – Eternally Yours
Selector – Too Much Pressure
Sex Pistols – Never Mind the Bollocks
Shoes – Present Tense
Sleater- Kinney – All Hands on the Bad One
Sloan – Between the Bridges
Sly & the Family Stone – There’s a Riot Goin’ On
Soft Boys – Underwater Moonlight
Sonic Youth – Sister
Sonics – Here are the Sonics
Sparks – Kimono My House
Specials – Specials
Squirrels – What Gives?
Stooges – Funhouse
Stranglers – Black & White
Supergrass – I Should Coco
T.S.O.L. – Beneath the Shadows
Talking Heads – More Songs About Buildings and Food
Television – Marquee Moon
The Soundtrack Of Our Lives – Behind the Music
Undertones – Undertones
Vapors – New Clear Days
Velvet Underground – Velvet Underground & Nico
Vibrators – Pure Mania
Waitresses – Wasn’t Tomorrow Wonderful?
White Stripes – White Blood Cells
Who – Sell Out
Wire – Pink Flag
X – Wild Gift
X Ray Spex – Germ Free Adolescents
Yardbirds – Roger the Engineer
Yo La Tengo – Painful
Young Fresh Fellows – The Men Who Loved Music
Zombies – Odyssey & Oracle

The Vent Guy!

The li’l woman and I spent a long weekend in Atlanta a few weeks ago. Even though I have spent plenty of time in the South, it was my first trip to Georgia. We went to visit our friends Laura and Jared and their kids, who live in Decatur. Some of the things we did/saw:

The World of Coke – What a racket! Adult admission is $9 for what is, essentially, a big commercial. Actually, the history was pretty interesting (though no mention was made of the fact that Coca-Cola originally had cocaine in it), and we enjoyed seeing all of the old print ads. Felix, the 6-year-old who was also in attendance, was about to burst waiting for us to be done in those areas – “Do you think this stuff is cool? Do you like that picture?” he asked us impatiently. He was, of course, anxious to go to the tasting rooms. You can try all of the beverages that Coke makes, even those only available overseas. We stuck with trying the overseas variety – the ginger beer was good. The Italian drink, called Bitters Aspertif or something like that, was what I’d imagine carbonated cesspool water would taste like. Yuck! We all left the World of Coke feeling a bit sick from the carbonation sitting in our stomachs, and I think the bottoms of my shoes were sticky from the tasting room.

Zoo Atlanta – We didn’t get to spend as much time here as I would have liked to. It’s a pretty nice zoo, from what we saw, although the reptile house could use some updating. (In the reptile house there was an exhibit that read "Most Dangerous Animal on the Planet." I looked in, and there was a freaking mirror! Ohmydeargod, that totally blew my mind! hardy har har….) The big attraction (and no doubt the cause of the steep admission) was the panda exhibit. I had never seen pandas before, so I really enjoyed that. They also have a great gorilla habitat.

Grub – We had a terrific dinner at Dusty’s Barbeque – great food in this little spot. I enjoyed my ‘cue while sipping a Cheerwine, a local soda that tastes a bit like cherry mixed with Dr. Pepper. We also had a great breakfast at the Flying Biscuit Café, a funky little spot in the cool old Candler Park area. I am now a fan of cheese grits.

Record Stores – I only made it to two stores to do a little vinyl digging. Wax N’ Facts is a packed store in the bohemian Little 5 Points neighborhood, I found a few goodies there. I also enjoyed browsing at Wuxtry Records, a nice little store in a strip mall in Decatur. Maybe I can make it to their Athens location next time.

The Vent – A column in the local paper, in which people call or email in asinine observations about life in Atlanta and local issues. A virtual soapbox for anonymous morons! They even refer to the moderator of this column as “the Vent Guy.” If I ever move to Atlanta, it will be my goal to become “the Vent Guy.” I honestly think I’m enough of an idiot to take on this role.

We enjoyed driving through some of the older neighborhoods; some of those old houses were beautiful. We also got caught in an amazing thunderstorm, and saw lightning strike a transformer maybe 300 feet from the car – the flash was incredible! Overall, we had a good time checking out a new city with our friends. Big thanks and hugs to Laura, Jared, Felix, Vivian, Emma, Buick, Linus, and Godzilla for their hospitality and opening their home to us!